On Saturday, my son Robbie and I had the great privelege of visiting the players and coaches of Louisiana Tech at their hotel prior to their game against Kansas. The coaches at La. Tech arrange for a pregame chapel service prior to all of their games, and it’s attended by most of their players. On Thursday, I was invited to speak to the group before its pregame meal, which was less than 48 hours later. What do you say to a group of big time college football athletes just a few hours before kickoff?

God allowed me to get some tremendous input from old friends and new, so a huge thanks to Jamie Lemmond, Ralph Stewart, Roger Lipe, Scot Loyd, and Sean McNamara, alphabetically by first name. I decided to talk about opportunity and opposition, and how great opposition can be a catalyst for great opportunities for impact. There are a couple verses in 1 Corinthians that I’ve never really noticed much before that deal with this. In verses 8-9 Paul writes “I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me”. There were many who opposed him, his foes were lined up against him, but Paul didn’t shrink from the challenge. La. Tech had a great challenge in front of them as well that day, and they didn’t shrink from it either. I was able to watch the first 20 minutes of that game on TV, and those men played hard. They were right there with the Jayhawks for most of the first half, keeping the score down, just not quite able to capitalize on their own chances to score. (Read more at http://latechsports.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/090608aaa.html) That’s the way it goes sometimes. Watch the film, fix the mistakes and get after it again next week. I pray La. Tech has a fantastic season, and I thank them for their hospitality. Robbie especially enjoyed the steak, chicken breast, corn, green beans, baked potato, roll, spaghetti and meat sauce and two cups of gatorade that he was fed at the pregame meal. I have never seen anyone his size eat so much food. He made a lasting impression on a few people in that room.

Then Sunday we kicked off another NFL season. How great is the NFL, and can you believe we get such fabulous entertainment basically for free? 32 teams. Fantasy football. 60 minute highlight shows. It’s so outstanding. What more is there to say? By my count, opening day of the NFL season is the 3rd or 4th best day of the year for us as a collective nation. Christmas, New Year’s Day, and maybe Thanksgiving are all I’m putting ahead of yesterday. There are other good ones, 1st day of school, last day of school, the first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA tournament (actually those two are probably better than yesterday). But still, 5th or 6th ain’t bad. It was weird to watch Brett play for the Jets, but it was good to see him shine. Go Packers.

80’s Lyric of the Week

Close your eyes and try to sleep now, close your eyes and try to dream

Clear your mind and do your best to try and wash the palette clean

We can’t begin to know it, how much we really care

I hear your voice inside me, I see your face everywhere

– Pat Benetar